Wednesday, July 18, 2012

All this history was unknown to us when we trekked through
Thung Yai, as we travelled much in the same way as I imagine Plains Indians in America
once travelled at the height of the Horse Culture. That is,
few compromises were made when it came to having lots to eat; all ages and both
genders worked together; religious rites and observances were frequent;
everything we needed we packed with us and few high-tech solutions were
employed. Most of all, we were lead by a single man, Ajan
Boon Long, who would confer with his fellow monks and rely on the expertise
of some others, but who once making a decision, all followed without
questioning, doubts or fear.

This was novel travel for me. My fellow villagers didn’t
give it a second thought.

I vividly remember the first time I spotted a hoe in the
back of the truck I was traveling in. My first thought was: “Isaan farmers just
can’t leave their hoes at home.” Well, these Issan farmers showed me much in
their capability and problem solving, not only by frequently using their hoes
on the worst roads, but fixing rather complicated mechanical breakdowns.

At the beginning of this article, I mentioned how I had my
doubts about going on this trip. Well, those doubts stemmed from what I
observed en route to the gates of Thung Yai. What it came down to was that all
my fellow travelers were new to me and I really didn’t know Ajan Boon Long all
that much and here we were going into one of the most remote areas of Thailand
as what appeared to me to be a “rag tag bunch.”

I lacked the trust.

I lacked the faith.

My Thai-Lao wife
kept encouraging me just to follow Ajan Boon Long’s leadership and enjoy the
ride. Just like each person had their own reasons for going and their own
lessons learned, mine was this one. Once I saw how truly capable my friends
were days away from any help from anyone else, my trust in them skyrocketed.
And once I gave up trying to mentally micro-manage the trip and not be so
critical – once I, in essence, just let Ajan Boon Long take me on an adventure of
a lifetime… then and only then did I have a great time.

Now that we’re back in our village in Northeastern
Thailand (the Isaan), again there’s already talk of next year’s
pilgrimage. And, Ajan Boon Long has made it be known: he wants me to go again.

The poem Ajan Boon Long composed about this trip:

“Far, far away,

And even farther still,

Thung Yai is way beyond me now,

But my heart still clings to that special place.

Even when I sleep,

I dream of the land –

Where flowers grow in trees.”

A video that I did not make but gives an accurate audio and
visual appreciation for being “Under the Canopy” at Thung Yai:

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Here I was with Kamattan
monks, lay people, novice monks and a few others trekking though an area of
Thailand
that had only been opened up approximately thirty years ago, after the Thai
insurgency had been resolved and the road built to support mining
operations in the area. It was this time that Ajan Satien – Ajan Boon Long’s
teacher – walked through the forest to provide spiritual guidance to the Karen
in the Wahuku area, close to the Burma border.

The
Thai name "Thung Yai Naresuan" refers to the "big field" (thung
yai) orsavannain
the centre of the sanctuary and is a reference to KingNaresuan. TheSiameseruler
based his army in the area to wage war againstBurma during his reign of
theAyutthaya Kingdom which lasted from 1590 until his death in
1605.[12]

TheKaren peoplewho live in the sanctuary call thesavannapia
aethala aetheawhich can be
translated as "place of the knowing sage". It refers to the area as a
place whereascetichermitscalledaetheahave lived and meditated and do so even
today. The Karen in Thung Yai regard them as holy men important for their
history and identity in Thung Yai and revere them in a specific cult.[13]

Settlement
ofKaren peoplein Thung Yai took place during the second half of the 18th century. At
that time, due to political and religious persecution inBurma, predominantly
Pwo-Karen from the hinterlands ofMoulmeinandTavoymigrated into the area northeast of theThree Pagodas Pass,
where they received formal settlement rights from theSiameseGovernor
ofKanchanaburi.
Sometime between 1827 and 1839 the Siamese KingRama IIIestablished
this area as a principality (mueang) and theKaren leader who was governing the
principality received the Siamese title of nobilityPhra Si Suwannakhiri. During the
second half of the 19th century, thisKaren-principality at the Burmese border
became particularly important for the Siamese KingRama V (Chulalongkorn) in his negotiations with theBritish colonial power in Burmaregarding the demarcation of their western
border withSiam.[14]

In
the beginning of the 20th century, when the modernThai nation statewas established, theKarenin
Thung Yai lost their former status and importance. The change of status meant
little change for them during the first half of the 20th century, because external
political influences were minimal in Thung Yai and the Karen communities were
highly autonomous regarding their internal affairs. This changed in the second
half of the 20th century, when theThai nation stateextended its institutions into the
peripheral areas and the Karen re-appeared aschao khaoor "hill tribes"
on the national political agenda, as forest destroyers and illegal immigrants.[15]

Out
of this greater governmental involvement grew plans to protect the forests and
wildlife at the upperKhwae YaiandKhwae Noi river in the mid-1960s. Due to
strong logging and mining interests in the area, it was not before 1972 that
theHuai Kha
Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuarycould
be established. For Thung Yai, the resistance was even stronger. However, as
fate would have it, in April 1973 a military helicopter crashed near Thung Yai
and revealed an illegal hunting party of senior military officers with family
members, businessmen, and a film star. This discovered abuse of privilege
aroused nationwide public outrage that finally led to the fall of theThanom-Prapas government, after the uprising of October 14,
1973. After this accident and under a new democratic government, the area
finally was declared a Wildlife Sanctuary in 1974.

After
the Military had taken over power once again in October 1976, many of the
activists of the Thai Democracy Movement fled into peripheral regions of the
country, some of them finding refuge among theKaren people in Thung Yai.[16]

During
the 1960s, not only timber and ore but also the water of the western forests as
potential hydroelectric power resources became of interest for commercial profit
and national development. A system of several big dams was planned to produce
electricity for the growing urban centres, using the sanctuaries’ watershed. On
theKhwae Yai River, theSi Nakharin Damwas finished in 1980 and the Tha Thung Na
Dam in 1981, while the Khao Laem Dam (renamed Vajiralongkorn Dam)
on theKhwae Noi riversouth of Thung Yai was completed in 1984.
The Nam Choan Dam, the last of the projected dams, was supposed to flood a
forest area of about 223 km² within the Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary.
There grew a public debate about the Nam Choan Dam Project that lasted for more
than six years, dominating national politics in early 1988 before it was shelved
in April that year.

Pointing
to the high value of Thung Yai for nature conservation and biodiversity, the
opponents on the national and international level had raised the possibility of
declaring the area a World Heritage Site. This prestigious option would have
been lost with a huge dam and reservoir in the middle of the two wildlife sanctuaries
by not meeting the requirements for global heritage status.[17]

After
the Nam Choan Dam Project was shelved, the proposal toUNESCOwas written by Sueb Nakasatien and Belinda Stewart-Cox, both who had been outspoken opponents of the Nam Choan project. As a result of their work and outrage over the death of Nakasatien, Thung Yai Naresuan and Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuarywas declared a Natural World Heritage Site by UNESCO in December 1991. In the nomination, the "outstanding universal value" of the two wildlife sanctuaries is, in first place, justified with their extraordinary high biodiversity due to their unique position at the junction of four biogeographic zones, as well as with its size and "the undisturbed nature of its habitats". [18]

Even
though theUNESCOnomination
explicitly emphasizes the "undisturbed nature" of the area,[19]and
notwithstanding scientific studies supporting traditional settlement and use
rights of theKaren peoplein Thung Yai as well as the sustainability of their traditional land use
system and their strong intention to remain in their homeland and to protect
it,[20]the
Thai government defines the people living in Thung Yai as threats to the
sanctuary and continue to pursue their resettlement.

Karen
villages inHuai Kha
Khaengwere already removed
when the wildlife sanctuary was established in 1972. In the late 1970s, the
remaining communities in Huai Kha Khaeng had to leave when theSi Nakharin Damflooded their settlement areas. During the
1980s and early 1990s, villages of theHmongethnic
minority group were removed from Huai Kha Khaeng and Thung Yai Naresuan. The
resettlement of the remainingKarenin
Thung Yai was announced in a management plan for the sanctuary, drafted in the
late 1980s, as well as in the proposal for the World Heritage Site. But, when
the Thai Royal Forest Department tried to remove them in the early 1990s, it
had to reverse the resettlement scheme due to strong public criticism.

Since
then, the authorities have used repression, intimidation and terror to convince
theKarento
leave their homeland 'voluntarily.' The government has concentrated on
restrictions on their traditional land use system which it hopes will
eventually cause its breakdown and deprive the Karen of their subsistence.[21]

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Each of us bumped, rolled, sloshed, sweated and certainly
struggled in this land for our own reasons, learning our own lessons in
addition to the ones Ajan Boon Long hoped we’d learn. Many of us travelled for
the sheer adventure of it all, secure and in the authority of travelling with
Buddhist monks. Some of us travelled out of respect for what Ajan Satien did
for the local Karen
people. (best known to Westerners as the tribe whose women elongate their
necks with a series of metal rings). Some felt reward for helping out the Karen
with food, clothes, salt and a change of diet at least for a couple of days.

Travelling as we did with Kammatan
Buddhist monks was the most important element of the trip as Thung Yai and Huai
Kha Khaeng are wildlife sanctuaries and, as such, protected areas unlike
national parks. So, visitors require prior permission to get in. The sanctuary
status is important because the designation helps ensure that the area is
relatively untouched. Tourism in the area, in fact, is not encouraged. The few
hundred visitors that do enter Thung Yai and Huai Kha Khaeng each year usually
are members of scientific field study groups. Anyone else wanting to enter
should first get consent from the Royal Thai
Forestry department.

I don’t know for sure, but my feeling is that if you travel
with Buddhist monks in Thailand,
you can go just about anywhere in the country and be respected for being in
their company – certainly an honor.

Being on an annual pilgrimage with Kamattan monks opens the
gates to Thung Yai as it would just about anywhere in “The Land of Smiles.” At
checkpoints, one of the lay people would present our travel/itinerary and the
number in our party, but not much more than that. As a foreigner, I was
expecting to have to present a passport and have a list with all our names on
it. I never saw such a list and I don’t think we had one.